


Homecomings

by Trojie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Domestic Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2017-12-31 20:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1036181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trojie/pseuds/Trojie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bruce is not a charity case, Steve creates havoc at the barracks, Clint is bad at therapy, Natasha gets shot, Thor gets an Earth Mom, and Tony doesn't need to <i>build</i> himself a family, he just needs to provide the right habitat for one to form organically around him, because that's an efficient engineering solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecomings

_A Long Time Ago_

Tony built stuff as a kid. Took things apart and fixed them, but mostly took them apart and made them better, or into something different. Being his father's son, that got him publicity. He got into the papers and magazines with Dummy and Butterfingers at thirteen, and they talked about his genius, how he was a prodigy, a chip off the old block. The robots got described as 'science fair projects' or 'innovations' depending on which section of the press was talking about them.

Now he's finished programming JARVIS, he's seventeen, his parents are dead, and the media are saying that Tony Stark, angsty teenager, is building himself the family he never had.

Which is stupid. Tony's building AIs. If Tony _wanted_ to build himself a family, he could do a damn sight better than two robotic arms and a household-management system, right? But he _doesn't_ want to. He's busy, he doesn't _need_ a family right now. His projects are keeping him busy. 

Anyway, he's fine on his own.

***

_Now_

_**Bruce** _

Tony takes Bruce back to Stark Tower. It needs rebuilding, pretty much all of it actually, but the top ten floors are now full of slightly-to-totally-broken bits of state-of-the-art lab equipment, and hot damn if that isn't a bigger incentive than perfectly-functional state-of-the-art lab equipment. Bruce had vague plans for going back to Calcutta, even though he knew S.H.I.E.L.D. would just chase him next time they got something that needed smashing on their tail, but now he's been informed that he's got a better offer.

And it's really hard to say no to Tony Stark.

'I could use you,' says Tony, shrugging while driving. Bruce raises an eyebrow at him. 'Okay maybe Fury told me you needed a place to stay,' Tony adds after a moment. 'But I swear, this isn't a charity thing. I can't fix it all up by myself, at least, not within the kind of timeframe Pepper's pushing for. And I need someone to help me with the COIL.'

When Bruce sees the state of Tony's COIL, he agrees. When he sees the sheer number of carefully-organised tiny screwdrivers Tony is capable of producing from his luggage, it stops being a question of 'if Bruce is going to stay' and becomes 'where's Bruce going to sleep'?

(Turns out, mostly in a sleeping bag next to/underneath/in close proximity to whatever he's currently trying to fix, for a few days at least until Pepper calls him and Tony up to the top floor and points out that she has, in fact, managed to call a plumber, an electrician, and a builder, and the penthouse is habitable again. Then there's a proper bedroom for Bruce. Also the COIL is fixed and they have the fifth-floor lab space, which Pepper refers to as Tony's lair, up and running by that point).

Slowly, between the pair of them handling everything with circuits or chips or potential for exploding, and Pepper coordinating, and a bunch of workmen that Tony dismisses half of on a daily basis doing boring essentials like drywall and cement, they get the tower approaching functional again. When Tony reconnects JARVIS there's something approaching a tear in his eye. They never do get round to reattaching the rest of the letters of 'STARK' on the sign, though - the tower lights up at night just saying 'A', blinking out over the tributes that the people of New York have left in cardboard and flowers and fingerpaint around the sidewalk at the base.

When Tony's finally giving a few select people the tour around the fixed, finished, furnished Stark Tower, that's when Bruce realises that he's been given pretty much a whole floor's worth of space, in this excessive monument that Tony's built and rebuilt, but it's all for _Bruce_. There's a bedroom, a study with a small lab-space attached, a bathroom. Human stuff, stuff Bruce likes or needs or uses. There's no panic room, no cell, no anywhere for him to go if … if the Other Guy decides to come knocking.

After Tony's done with the mild publicity stunt-slash-housewarming and Pepper's helping people with coats and cabs and business cards, Bruce kind of corners him.

'Alright,' he says, trying to keep things amiable, shoving his hands in his pockets like it isn't a big deal to him that Tony didn't account for this, or didn't tell him if he has. 'Where is it?'

'Where's what?' Tony asks. 'Is this about the espresso machine? I moved it. Apparently coffee in an ultra-clean lab isn't the best idea. Who knew?' Typical Tony - derail everything with humour before it can even start. 

Bruce tries again. 'I mean, where am I supposed to go - where are you going to put me if -'

He shrugs. 

Tony looks like he's been smacked. 'Seriously?' he says, a little incredulously.

He's peering into Bruce's face now, and Bruce honestly thinks he might be surprised. 

'The Hulk saved my life,' says Tony. 'And I've seen you - you have a lid on this thing, man. He only breaks through it when you let him, or when you're hurt. And trust me, if you're getting hurt _in this house_ then I think we want the Other Guy to come help us out, because if you're getting hurt then so am I and so is anyone else who might be in here. I have security measures, okay? I designed them myself. And JARVIS is always on the case. If something gets all the way through that?' 

He takes a deep breath, and tries a smile. 'Yeah, no. I'm not putting you anywhere, big guy.'

***

_**Steve** _

Steve takes his holiday, most of which is spent riding his motorcycle and being astounded at the price of gas, and then, dutifully, he goes to debrief with Fury. 

'You got somewhere to stay, Cap?' Fury asks afterwards. His expression is difficult to read, as always, but Steve thinks there might be a hint of concern in it. 

He shrugs. 'I was going to see if they'd have room for me at the barracks. I never actually did get my discharge papers, so I'm still a soldier.'

Fury gives him a very odd look but doesn't say he has a problem with it, so Steve packs up his bag again and presents himself to the commander at the barracks. They find him a room, and he settles in, almost breathing a sigh of relief at how familiar it feels. Alright, it looks different - everything is newer, brighter, slightly less khaki, but the atmosphere hasn't changed. This is still a military base. This is where he's meant to be.

The first autograph-seeker turns up in the guise of a message-runner from the commander. Steve sighs mentally without letting the expression on his face change, and finds a pen. 

By the third day on base, Steve has signed two hundred and sixty four bits of paper and several pieces of borderline pornographic military-themed pin-up girl art. He's on the point of asking the commander if something can be done when the journalists start turning up. 

The commander, in the officers' mess that evening, asks him if perhaps there's somewhere else he can go. 

'You're on secondment to S.H.I.E.L.D.,' he points out. 'They ought to be housing you, not the regular army. We're not really equipped to deal with someone of your … status.'

Steve takes the point, although he dislikes it intensely, and calls Fury. 

'It's ridiculous,' he says down the tiny shiny phone they gave him. 'Can't a man get a little privacy round here? Who are these people, anyway?'

'The word you're looking for is 'paparazzi', and the answer to your question is 'no',' says Fury. 'I'll have someone come pick you up.' He sounds darkly amused, but that might just be his usual tone of voice. 'Just hang on.'

'I don't want to put you to any trouble,' says Steve, and Fury chuckles down the line. 

'You're not,' he says. 'Your ride will be out front in ten,' he adds, and hangs up.

Steve's 'ride' is apparently a limousine with Tony's driver at the wheel, and if he were a swearing man Steve would let off a ripe curse for that. But he gets in, because Happy's holding the door for him and it would be rude not to. He does like Happy, after all. Everyone seems to, which is probably why Tony hired the guy - to drive him around and put out his social fires.

'Please tell me we're not going where I think we're going,' Steve says as they weave through the streets of New York. 

Happy doesn't take his eyes off the road but he grins and says, 'I'm not a psychic, sir, but I'm fairly certain I can't tell you that.'

'What did Fury have to bribe Stark with to make him give me house-room?' Steve asks. 

That does make Happy look up at him, just a quick blip in his concentration before he's back to focusing on the road. 'Nothing,' he says. 'Why would he have to?'

'Because Mister Stark and I don't always get on that well,' Steve points out.

Happy smiles, and turns a corner. For the first time since the Chitauri disaster, Steve sets eyes on the Stark Tower, still just the 'A' Tower, apparently, and it looks just as good as new, shining in the brassy light of the setting sun. It's astonishing. 'He's been busy, hasn't he,' Steve says, a little awestruck. 

After they've pulled into the parking garage at the base of the tower, Happy gets out to take Steve's holdall, and stops him for a moment. 

'I've known Tony Stark for a long time,' says Happy. 'Trust me when I say, he didn't need bribing.' He holds eye contact until Steve nods, and then he's back to being the unobtrusive chauffeur.

Stark is standing in the doorway of the elevator, arms spread wide like he's about to present the tower to Steve for inspection. Maybe he is.

'Tony,' says Steve carefully. 

'Cap,' says Tony, waving him and Happy into the elevator. 'Welcome aboard.'

When Tony says he's going to show Steve to his room, Steve's expecting, well, a room. Not a whole floor.

'This is ridiculous,' he says, and Tony smirks like it's the biggest and best compliment he could ever have been given. 

'Says the guy who goes about his business in skintight patriotic-themed leather,' he points out. Before Steve can retort, though, Tony says, 'Look, Captain, it's my job to equip S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with anything and everything they could need. Let me do my job.'

'I'm not sure that's supposed to include housing them,' Steve tries, although he doesn't know why he's arguing, because where else is he going to go?

'Worked for me,' says Bruce from the doorway, and Steve turns, but not before he's seen the look on Tony's face. 'Hi, Steve,' says Bruce, extending a hand.

'Anything and everything,' says Tony again. 'You need a h- you need somewhere to stay? I get you somewhere to stay. That's the deal, Capsicle.'

Steve and Bruce exchange looks, and Bruce smiles softly and shakes his head. Steve takes the hint, and doesn't say anything, but he shakes Tony's hand, too. 

***

_**Clint** _

Coulson gives Clint a hard look and a set of crabby instructions about how he has to take things easy if he wants to get off the bench at any point in the next three years. Clint takes that to mean that Coulson is concerned about him - he only gets bitchy when things start to hit home. It's kind of flattering. 

The psych report on the state of Clint's head post-Loki is less flattering, but it makes a couple of hard-to-ignore points on the subject of shell-shock, and Clint's seen enough cases of that to know it's not something you can laugh off. But he'll be damned before he goes off to some rubber room to do silent meditations on his life. 

He tells Fury so at their next debrief. Fury scowls one-eyed at him and says, 'I have had an offer of someplace you could go, actually, but you have to swear you'll keep out of trouble.'

By 'swear', he apparently means 'fill out seventeen different forms in triplicate', but oh well. Clint signs where he's told to, and gets in the car they call for him. 

He's not that surprised when he looks out the window and sees whose parking garage they're pulling into. 

'My doctor said 'peace and quiet',' he tells Tony when Tony opens the door for him. 'Fury said 'or else'. So here I am.' Tony grins at him. 

'Can probably provide that if I get enough sound-proofing in,' he says. 'Come on in.'

Clint spends a week crawling over every bit of the tower he can find, checking it out, working out weak points and lines of sight before the twitchiness calms down, and then he does what he does best, which is settle in and, well, spy.

Pepper sees him, he knows, because the other explanation is that she has a form of Tourette's that manifests as her winking at odd corners that just happen to contain Clint. She's the one that moves around the Tower the most - directing the last few workmen who are finishing off the office and lab spaces below the residential floors. Tony and Bruce each occupy roughly half a floor's worth of space each; Bruce's mostly full of whiteboards, Tony's mostly full of bits of servo. Neither of them appears to notice Clint padding around the place unless he's actually directly in their sightlines, but it takes Clint a few days to work out that Tony's actually making four cups worth of coffee every morning, rather than just being incredibly wasteful about how much he leaves in the machine.

Coulson eventually figures out where he is, and keeps checking in on him. Natasha doesn't, but then again, Clint's pretty sure they're keeping her moving so she can't try. Black Widow with time on her hands is a dangerous lady to have around your facilities. Particularly when she's got a goal in mind, and finding her usual partner would almost certainly be a goal she could sink her teeth into.

'Look, I'm quiet, I'm calm, I'm safe,' says Clint when Coulson calls him for the fifth time in three days. 'If I go nutso, I'm sitting in a fortress with Iron Man, the Hulk, and Pepper Potts, and frankly I'm pretty sure that's more secure than your standard rehab. I'm safe as houses, Coulson.'

Coulson, for once in his life, doesn't argue.

'I wouldn't wanna mess with Pepper either,' says Tony the next morning, when Clint tentatively decides to try walking through the building non-stealthily. 'Coffee, Agent Barton?'

***

_**Natasha** _

Natasha manages to get herself shot in New York, which is careless and annoying and mostly just good luck on the part of the guy with the handgun whom she hands over to her S.H.I.E.L.D. tail ten pissed-off minutes later. 

This would have been a lot easier if Clint had been here with her, she grumbles to herself. But they're keeping him away from her and keeping her on her toes. Maybe she should have pushed herself on that Honolulu job a bit harder and found some spare time to go hunting in ...

It's really hard to fake walking perfectly normally when you've been creased along your hip, but she manages it long enough to lose S.H.I.E.L.D. She isn't going to hospital, and she's definitely not planning on giving Fury the satisfaction of being the guy who sorts everything out after the heroes are done making a mess. _She_ got in the way of a stray bullet, _she_ will sort herself out. Properly. And then she will go and make her report.

It just so happens that she knows a doctor in New York, anyway. He's not a _medical_ doctor, technically, but she's well aware of the full scope of his talents and this situation falls within them. She pulls out her mobile - not the S.H.I.E.L.D. one, the other one - the one with SI stamped on the back - and makes a call.

It's Stark himself who comes to get her, predictably. Also predictably, he does it in the most ostentatious car imaginable. 'I'm probably gonna bleed on your upholstery,' Natasha says as she gets in and straps her seatbelt tight. She can't help the grimace when she sits.

Stark shrugs, peeling away from the kerb and doing a U-turn so they won't have to drive in an open-topped car past an active crime-scene that Natasha kind of put there. 'This car's easily cleaned,' he says, and that is way more information than Natasha needs. 

Off her look, he says, 'Just to clarify, I know that because I made the initial tests on the suit in the garage and I have a robot who's way too keen on the fire extinguisher. Not for any other reasons.'

Natasha raises her eyebrow, which is all you need with a chatterbox like Tony Stark. 

He adds, 'I prefer something with a backseat for 'other reasons',' and smirks at her. 'Anyway, are you gonna tell me exactly why I'm going to get DNA evidence all over my seats so I can phone it in to the good doctor?'

'9mm round grazed my hip,' she says, 'It's a cut, that's all. I just need to get the bleeding stopped and then I'll be on my way.' She's starting to feel kind of faint off the blood-loss, actually, but she's not going to tell Stark that. 

'I'm pretty sure the big guy's gonna recommend bed rest,' Stark says, rounding another corner. In front of them, Natasha can see the bulk of the tower looming up. It's looking a lot better than the last time she saw it, although she notes that Stark still hasn't got round to fixing the sign. 

'I've got to debrief,' she points out. 'And then I can rest at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Don't worry about it, Stark - I'm not on the Avengers clock right now.'

He hums something non-committal and they sweep into the garage under the tower. Before Natasha can do anything sensible, Doctor Banner and Captain Rogers sort of literally sweep her off her feet - onto a gurney. 

'Hello, ma'am,' says Rogers gravely. Before he can say anything else, Banner takes over. 

'Any other wounds?' he asks. He's peering at the slash in her uniform. 'This looks pretty clean -'

'Nothing else,' Natasha says. 'And I can still walk, you know.' Sort of. 

'We had the gurney all ready,' Banner shrugs. 'Seemed a shame to waste it. Plus, if you were walking Steve'd probably have taken your arm by now.'

'Be fair,' says Rogers, pushing the gurney like an extra out of E.R. 'The lady's been shot. I'd be taking your arm if you'd been shot and were insisting on walking fifty flights of stairs too, doc.'

'You want me to call Barton?' Stark asks, catching up with them on the way to the elevator. 'Or Fury?'

'Don't call Fury,' Natasha says definitely, leaning up on her elbow to look back at him. 'This is minor. And how do you know where to call Barton, anyway? They told me he was unreachable.'

The elevator doors open. Natasha stares.

'Uh, so. When I said 'call Barton', I kind of meant on the intercom,' Stark confesses somewhere behind her. 

Barton nods at her. 'Hey, Natasha,' he says, and shrugs, like there's too much to say so he isn't going to try. She just keeps staring. He's there. There he is. And Banner's taking her pulse and Rogers is waving his fingers in front of her face like she's not paying attention. 

Stark mutters in her ear, 'You're always on the Avengers clock, Agent Romanov. We're a team, remember?'

***

_**Thor** _

By the time Thor appears, Tony isn't even slightly surprised any more. Looks like it's a good thing he never got round to fixing the sign. Well. He had a hunch. 

It's got to be hungry work, teleporting between planets. Tony gets JARVIS to order pizza. When they're all crowding round, Steve starts to hand out plates, and Pepper pours everyone a drink, and Clint claps Thor on the back and all in all it's so saccharinely domestic that Tony just _has_ to say something. 

Unfortunately he doesn't think through _what_ , exactly, and so 'Well, you know your mom and I are always happy to have you home,' is what comes out of his mouth, directed at Thor. He puts a hand on Steve's shoulder too, because there's a demon of mischief in him somewhere, and hey, it was Steve with the plates. And the napkins, too.

It takes Steve a couple of beats to work out that Tony's talking about _him_ , not Pepper. The clue is possibly Pepper snorting into her drink. She knows Tony far too well. 

'Wait, since when am I Mom?' Steve demands. Pepper is still giggling.

'Since you act like it, Mom,' throws in Clint, who's here for a hasty dinner before flying out to meet Natasha somewhere for some shady SHIELD thing. Fury keeps those two hopping. Tony makes a mental note to get Pepper to file a memo protesting the fact that he got them beds and everything and they very seldom get to use them. 

Thor's honest brow crinkles. 'Captain Rogers is a fine commander, and I mean no disrespect, but I feel my lady mother would be less than flattered by the comparison.'

Tony snorts. 'It's okay, big guy. Cap's only your mom when you're in the tower. Think of him as your Earth Mom.'

'I'm not anyone's mom,' says Steve, who looks like he wants to thunk his head into the table, but is grinning underneath it (it's in the eyes. Tony's getting good at telling). 

'You're everyone's mom, Mom,' Tony fires back.

Bruce takes that moment to wander in and completely ignore the pizza in favour of the lukewarm coffee pot in the corner. 'Does this mean I have to put Steve on my next-of-kin forms?' he asks, pouring himself a cup. 'Oh, hey Thor.'

'Greetings, Doctor Banner,' says Thor gravely, clearly deciding to ignore the discussion of how a soldier from the 1940s is his Earth mom. 'How goes your work?'

'Ticking along,' says Bruce, sitting down and burying his face in the coffee.

'That has to be cold by now,' says Steve, clearly trying to help the change of topic along. Tony barely has to do a damn thing. See? He is efficient. Pepper is giving him the side-eye of 'I know what you're up to', but Tony is wise to her ways. He ignores her. Steve adds, 'Wouldn't you rather have a hot cup? I can make another pot.' 

'See?' says Clint, reaching for more pizza. 'You're definitely Mom.'

Steve turns to Pepper, appealing for some sanity. She shrugs. 'Hey, it's not gonna be me,' she says.

'Pepper doesn't love us any more,' says Tony mournfully. 'She's going to Geneva tomorrow.' This is, in fact, a very sad turn of events. He's very broken-up over it.

Pepper kisses him on the crown of his head. 'I never signed up to be your keeper, sweetie. If you want to keep the Super Friends in the basement, that's fine, but you have to clean up after them and make sure they get enough exercise.'

'I don't have to clean up after them, that's what Cap's for,' Tony points out. 'Because he's _Mom_.'

Steve grabs an extra slice of pizza. 'I'm going to the gym,' he says, and heads for the elevator. 'You guys can all just clean up after _yourselves_.'

'Yes, Mom,' chorus Pepper, Tony and Clint. Bruce just waves at him. 

'This means you must be our father,' says Thor to Tony. 'After all, it is your house.'

And for once in his life, Tony doesn't quite know what to say.


End file.
